The Range: The Tucson Weekly's Daily Dispatch

CD2 Update: Barber Leads McSally by 943 Votes

With a new vote tally from Pima County, Congressman Ron Barber has expanded his lead over GOP challenger Martha McSally to 943 votes. The score, as of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday: Barber, 138,774; McSally, 137,831.

The Pima County web site tells us that the Elections Department counted 1,482 early ballots and 927 provisional ballots today. Officials estimate that just 70 early ballots and 26,000 provisional ballots remain to be counted.

Pima County counted 1,482 early ballots and 927 provisional ballots on Wednesday, Nov. 14, as elections officials continue working to finalize election results.

Brad Nelson, director of the Pima County Elections Department, said that 70 early ballots he has received from the Pima County Recorder’s Office have yet to be counted and that he still expects to receive more early ballots.

According to the Recorder’s Office website, the office has verified and turned over to the Elections Department for counting a total of 261,363 early ballots.

The Recorder’s Office has also verified and turned over to the Elections Department a total of 5,710 provisional ballots, of which 4,783 remain to be counted.

Approximately 27,000 provisional ballots were issued at the polling places on Election Day. The Recorder has until Nov. 16 to verify the remaining provisional ballots.

The count will resume at 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15. Brad Nelson, director of the Pima County Elections Department, said that he expects all early ballots to be counted by the end of the day Wednesday.

An as-yet-undetermined number of provisional and conditional ballots issued at the polling places will not be certified for a number of different reasons, including if voters failed to provide the appropriate identification, were not registered to vote, or already cast an early ballot before showing up at the polling places.

As Election 2012 is finalized, daily updates will be posted by 6 p.m. on Pima County’s home page, www.pima.gov, with the total number of ballots counted that day.